Quotes About Shakespeare

Neither maid, widow, nor wife.

My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.

Oh, thou hast a damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me Hal, God forgive thee for it. Before I knew thee Hal, I knew nothing, and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.

This fellow's wise enough to play the fool, And to do that well craves a kind of wit.

Thou art all the comfort, The Gods will diet me with.

Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth.

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

What a deformed thief this fashion is.

Yet do I fear thy nature It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

We must be free or die, who speak the tongueThat Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals holdWhich Milton held.

Scorn not the sonnet; Critic, you have frowned,Mindless of its just honors; with this keyShakespeare unlocked his heart.

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue that Shakespeare spoke: the faith and morals hold which Milton held.

Maria Edgeworth grumbled against vandals who ruined immortal works by quoting the life out of them. "How far our literature may in future suffer from these blighting swarms, will best be conceived by a glance at what they have already withered and blasted of the favourite productions of our most popular poets." Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden, scissored, patched, and frayed.

Misquotation is quotology's swamp. Amateur quoters mix and mangle Shakespeare and Scripture. Professors gaffe and printers bungle. It's a mess we must wade into.

I used to start my questionnaires by asking, 'Which would you rather hear on the radio tonight – Jack Benny or a Shakespeare play?' If the respondent said Shakespeare, I knew he was a liar and broke off the interview.

That affable familiar ghost Which nightly gulls him with intelligence.

So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Yet do I fear thy nature It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.

I've been hearing about Shakespeare all my life, but I had no idea he really wrote so well; I always suspected him of going largely on his reputation.

I never could act, Edna. And I detest Hamlet. Have you ever seen a production of Hamlet that didn't make you want to go home and put your head in the oven? I haven't. Oh, I thought our Hamlet was quite nice, said Edna. Because it was abridged, said Peg. Which is the only thing Shakespear should ever be.

Shakespeare had all these sonnets where what he said came down to this: Youth is fleeting and you'd better get married and have children and make a copy of the beauty you own because the world owns it too.

Life is an admirable arrangement, isn't it, little mother. It is so clever of it to have June in every year and a morning in every day, let alone things like birds, and Shakespeare, and one's work.

England, An Ode All our past acclaims our future: Shakespeare's voice and Nelson's hand, Milton's faith and Wordsworth's trust in this our chosen and chainless land, Bear us witness: come the world against her, England yet shall stand.